"Spending a long time in space has the effect of deadening the taste buds, so extra salt and spices were added to the pizza."

what?? i never knew that...

i don't think i want to go into space anymore.posted by o2b at 12:03 PM on May 27, 2001

As you'll recall, Mir was one big outer-space billboard for Pizza Hut.

Too bad he didn't order from Domino's, because he probably scored a free pizza on that "30 minutes or less" deal. Do you supposed he stiffed the delivery guy on the tip?posted by briank at 12:11 PM on May 27, 2001

What about the big Taco Bell target for Mir crash a few months ago.

"The Russian Space Program - A Division of Tricon Global Restraurants"posted by benjh at 1:55 PM on May 27, 2001

I guess the new policy regarding promotional fun is: When Daddy US is in a bad mood and doesn't want to play, run to Mother Russia...she loves you wholeheartedly and will let you do whatever the hell you want (provided you slip her a cool million or so on Mother's Day). Hey, let's pool together some cash and see what kind of random things we can get Russia to send into space -- I'll chip in $20 bucks for sending Jack Chick off.posted by Hankins at 2:18 PM on May 27, 2001

...ya, im on the van allen beltway..i turn left at Asia...follow the wall and then ring the bell?... ya, look for the red Corsia...no i dont accept rubbles....posted by clavdivs at 2:42 PM on May 27, 2001

Do huh?

The pizza must have been pretty cold by the time it got there!posted by Redgie at 2:56 PM on May 27, 2001

Could we just ban the Russians from space? Who would have thought the Russkies would be the ones enabling the crass commercialism of the next frontier. That's America's job.posted by owillis at 5:56 PM on May 27, 2001

I'm for crass commercialism, whomever's responsible for it.posted by mw at 7:14 PM on May 27, 2001

Looks like maybe the overtaking of the internet by commercial interests and spammers (pisses off the old-school hackers, but brought the internet into the mainstream) is going to be recapitulated to some extent with the space program (pisses off the old-school astronauts, but brings space travel to the mainstream).

Face it, NASA doesn't want civies in space. The only way you or I, the ordinary joes, are going to space is if we buy a ticket from somebody. And when space travel does go mainstream, there are going to be monopolies, service delays, marketing messages on every flat surface, etc., just like with any commercial venture. Welcome to the solar system, brought you you by Proctor and Gamble, Starbucks, and Microsoft!posted by RylandDotNet at 8:48 PM on May 27, 2001

Uh, Congress banned civilian astronauts after we ... um ... accidental-like blew one of them up.

Russia does this only because hard currency like this from the West, whether Tito's or Pizza Hut's, is money they can actually invest abroad and put in banks, unlike Russian rubles. It has nothing to do with Russia being more interested in bringing space travel to the masses. In fact, this article was wrong: it stated that PH paid the Russian space agency, but that only exists for the purpose of funneling NASA money toward space station projects. The deal was almost certainly directly with Energia or the joint venture MirCorp (Dutch HQ). It's entirely possible that money went directly into personal bank accounts without ever passing through Russian tax authorities.

Russia also just agreed to sell the 2nd (flight engineer) seat in most upcoming Soyuz flights to the ESA. Screwed all the Russian flight engineers, but hey ....

Russian astronauts are today very similar to sports free agents. They have lawyers and agents who negotiate their contracts for each flight, including bonuses for whatever they can come up with, like extra spacewalks or manual dockings (meaning, guess what, the automatic docking system "never worked" ... and probably, therefore, a contributing factor in the Mir crash). Delays or failures can mean debits, not just demerits.

One of the problems with food and drink in space is that there are no fridges. Yup: everything's room temp or hotter (e.g. soup, sandwiches). The taste-bud problem is entirely due to the bland diet.posted by dhartung at 9:02 PM on May 27, 2001

I think I'd rather stay on earth.

What's the use of going to space if we bring all our crappy misbegotten cultural disasters with us?

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